Thanks Misti! Great article... It seems like common sense stuff in theory, but in practice I think it takes some... well, practice to get these skills down. Good information, as always!

 

Thank you!

 

I was at the track the other day with Ken Condon (author of Riding in the Zone) and we were discussion riding in the rain (as it was starting to rain). He said something really astonishing, and obvious, that I had never really considered.

I'm not going to try to repeat exactly what he said, but the jist was that as you are preparing physically to enter the corner (analyzing your line, setting your body position, setting your speed) you also need to be preparing mentally to deal with situations that might occur. Remind yourself of the techniques you need to use to deal with problems. If the front starts to slide, relax even more on the bars, let the bike recover (don't try to steer it, you've done enough of that). If, on coming out, the rears starts to let go, don't chop the throttle, maintain it (of course this implies that you didn't go from 0 throttle to significant throttle quickly, and were racheting the throttle up like you should be), let the rear recover.

By preparing mentally for these things as part of the set-up for the turn, you'll be less likely to panic if they do happen, as you will have already thought out how you are going to respond.

 

Good advice...

 

Learn to ride in rain your body and the bike tells you what's up 1st gear take off slow if you are wondering what's the deal with the rain bump the gas a lil feel the tires slide shift low rpm and be happy u r on a bike

 

I definitely agree that you should be mentally prepared for what might happen and a lot of that mental preparedness comes from learning and studying about riding technique. People that read articles on riding tech or know the theory of good riding are that much more likely to utilize it when needed. Sometimes just reminding yourself that it is raining and wet out and that certain things need to be changed a little in your riding will help.

You mentioned something about recovering from a front end slide that I wanted to touch base on though. You said, "If the front starts to slide, relax even more on the bars, let the bike recover (don't try to steer it, you've done enough of that)." Could you clarify a little more what you mean by that? If you are going around a right hand turn for example and the front starts to slide then you wouldn't want to press on the right bar and continue to steer the bike into the right.....but what would happen if you pressed on the outside bar (the left bar?) What would that do?

Misti

 

Sorry, I haven't checked in here in a while...

In general, the motorcycle is great at doing what it needs to do to continue rolling. It's normally the idiot rider (me absolutely included in that) where the problem comes from in crashing . How many video's of motorcycle crashes have you seen where the rider ends up on the pavement (or grass) and the motorcycle happily rolls away having rid itself of the rider? Not all of them, of course, but more than a few.

I'm far from an actual expert here. I'm mostly just parroting things that I've heard from my instructors. I've started to experience some of these, but I also do it wrong more than I do it right.

In the case where you have already initiated a right turn and the front starts to slide, relax. No steering input at all. If you have time to note that the front is sliding, you have "just" exceeded the front tires ability to provide you with traction. The combination of speed, lean angle (possible braking, if you are trailing), and available traction between the tire and surface is at (or just above) maximum. The best course of action is to be smooth. If you had any bar pressure applied relax it smoothly. If you were on the brakes trail off smoothly. The bike has the best chance of recovering from this. Its very design will allow it to recover as long as we don't mess it up.

Steering more to the right, in this case (pushing on the right bar) will most likely cause the front to wash, and you'll experience some level of pavement surfing, probably on your belly. You'll be asking more of a tire that is already at maximum. The downside of this, of course is that you likely will not be able to maintain your (previously planned) line. This (on the track) could put you in the grass, or even into some air fence... however, one thing that I have learned is that if you can delay your crash, that gives you more time to both prepare for the crash, as well as time to evaluate other options and the options that you have change based on the situation. The grass is certainly a better option that pavement surfing. And even an air fence might still be avoidable if I can save it NOW. Keep giving yourself chances to save it

Pressing the outside bar is possibly an interesting idea and to be honest, based on my knowledge might work, however, it could also cause the bike to "overcorrect". In the same way as when the rear is sliding out the "obvious" thing to do is to chop the throttle. It's obvious and wrong, often resulting in a high side. Would the result of outside pressure be the same in this case??? I don't know. What I've been told (and tried, albeit in limited examples) is just relaxing is the best response.

Excellent questions!

 

What would pressing on the outside bar do to the overall lean angle of the bike? If the front is sliding what might pressing on the outside bar help with?

 

My thoughts. Open to other opinions...

Conceptually pushing on the outside bar would would decrease the overall lean angle of the bike. Realistically, I'm not convinced that it's the right thing to do if you are sliding.

I'm not arguing here about whether or not I believe in counter steering. Push right to go right. Push left to go left. No arguments. If you are in a right hander and you are too tight, pushing left will decrease the turn. Again, no arguments about the concept.

My conceptual arguments against pressuring the outside bar in this case...
1) Countersteering working depends on the steering input that the operator applies to the bars being translated to the contact patch which initiates the lean. If the tire is sliding the steering torque will not be successfully transmitted, which will not result in the bike decreasing its lean angle. In countersteering the front tire "momentarily" moves in the direction that the operator steers, causing the bike to "fall" in the opposite direction (in this case it doesn't fall, but gets additional "support" underneath it). If the tire lacks traction to move slightly more into the turn temporarily, it will not lessen the lean angle.
2) The tire (whether it is because of braking or lean angle and speed) is at it traction limit. Any bar input is going to be asking for additional traction forces, which the tire will be unable to give. You've most likely been pressing "slightly" on the right bar. Switching to pressing the left bar will be a significant change in what you are asking of the tire. This could easily cause what was a partial lack of traction to become a complete loss of traction. If you were trailing in this situation, could you reduce the amount of trail applied and "reuse" that for steering input? Maybe, but you would need to be more skilled than I am.

The difference here between relaxing on the bars and giving a bar input is that relaxing on the bars will allow the bike to "find its way". The tire, as it is sliding anyway, needs some room to find traction. Giving it a bar input in any direction, or even trying to "maintain" whatever the current direction is will be impacting the bike's ability to "find traction". It's going to need to wiggle a bit to recover. Get out of the way and let it.

Enjoying the discussion.

 

All good info, I was actually waiting to see what people said about rainx on visors because iI thought of it once but wasn't sure what it might do to plastic lol